The following test was written as a general quiz of Middle-earth knowledge. Once you have completed the test, you may submit it to the appropriate authority to have your answers verified. We should note that Tolkien states explicitly in Letters #181 that 'the One retains all ultimate authority', and therefore when you have completed your test you should submit it directly to Eru Iluvatar for grading.
Pick up your number 2 pencils and begin. You have thirty minutes.
1. Just exactly what was the nature of the friendship between Gimli and Legolas? 2. If Aragorn had the option, would he have ditched the Fellowship for a date with Pamela Anderson? 3. How many times is the word 'passed' used in LotR? (No peeking!) 4. If Frodo hung the Ring on a chain, why didn't the chain turn invisible? 5. Reconcile Tom Bombadil's statement that he is 'Eldest' with Gandalf's statement that Fangorn is 'the oldest of all living things'. Extra Credit: suggest a valid date of birth for each of them. Document your answers. 6. Though Moria is, by rightful ownership, Dain's, Balin nonetheless referred to himself as 'Lord of Moria'. Helm's Deep is clearly the property of the Rohirrim, being part of lands granted to them by Gondor long years ago, yet in Return of the King p. 360 hardback Gimli declares himself 'Lord of the Glittering Caves'. Explain the laws and history pertaining to Dwarven property rights, and how those differed from the customs of Elves and Men. For full credit your answer must also reconcile Dwarven property laws with the generous nature of Aule, the Dwarves' creator. 7. How would the history of Middle-earth have differed if Sauron had returned to Aman and received the judgement of Manwe at the end of the First Age, rather than remaining in Middle-Earth (Silmarillion p. 285 hardback)? Describe resultant cultural differences which would have taken place in the Second, Third and Fourth Ages. Special emphasis should be given to the cultures of the Grey Havens, Numenor (including the Dunedain and the Black Numenoreans), the Rohirrim, the Dunlendings and others descending from the peoples of the White Mountains, the Ents, the peoples of Khand, the Orcs (particularly those tribes living in the Grey, Misty and Ash Mountains and the Mountains of Shadow), the Elven peoples of Gil-Galad (include Elrond and the likelihood of Rivendell's being constructed), the Hobbits (beginning from when they were living in the Vales of Anduin), and the Haradrim (both Near and Far Harad must be covered for full credit). Also speculate on the differences in culture which would take place in Aman as Sauron describes his experience with evil to the Valar, Maiar, and Eldar living there. On Silmarillion p. 65, it states that 'Manwe was free from evil and could not comprehend it'; would he gain an understanding of evil from the experiences of Sauron? Be prepared to defend your answer.
Ähm, ihr habt schon verstanden, dass das offensichtlich vom Autor nicht ernst gemeint ist, oder? Nun, aber wenn ihr wollte, ich bitte um Antworten, solltet ihr zu allem was sinnvolles schreiben, so werde ich versuchen, es tatsächlich an Eru weiter zu leiten...
1. gute Zwerg-/Elfreundschaft, wenns was anderes wäre, hätter Peter Jackson eine Brücke-im-Wald-Szene eingebaut (und Tolkien in den Anhängen eine Legolas-Gimli Geschichte geschrieben).
2. Nein. 1. Er wusste, dass seine Aufgabe wichtig ist, 2. hatte er schon eine Beziehung (nur noch König werden, dann darf ich auch), 3. Pamela Anderson???
3. I will count like troll on Discworld. MuchManyManyMuchMuch. Its correct, convert it to decimal and you will see.
4. The chain is not a (formerly living) beeing. So, it is not affected.
5. Vielleicht ist Tom Bombadil kein "lebendes Ding" im Sinne von der Definition "lebend". Da Tom sehr gut irgendeine Form von Gott oder Geist sein könnte (imho ist er), könnte es sein, dass er nicht teil der lebenden Dinge von Mittelerde ist. Daher kann er der Älteste sein und Fangorn ist das älteste das lebt. Siehe dazu 4. Da die Kette als nicht lebendes Ding vom Ring nicht beeinflusst ist und Tom nicht beeinflusst wird, folgt (logisch vollkommen einwand- und fehlerfrei), dass Tom kein Lebendes Ding sein kann. Ansonsten darf nicht vergessen werden, dass es hier immer um Mittelerde als Bezugspunkt geht. Das heisst, hier kann was das erste sein, dann kommt was anderes (z.b. Tom) nach Mittelerde (und gesamt gesehen war er das älteste auf der Welt).
6. Hier wird es mir zu juristisch, dennoch möchte ich anmerken, dass der "lord von moria" der "herr von Moria" ist. Da es mehrere Herrn von Moria geben kann, nur eben zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten ("You both will be emperor"). Da die Rohirim nur interesse an Ebenen und nur in den schlimmsten Notfällen interesse an Höhlen zeigen, kann sich der Zwerg problemfrei in den Glizternden Höhlen als Herr aufspielen, ohne dass dieses sonderlich mit den Interessen der Rohirim kollidiert. Die Zwergischen Besitzrechte bestimmen sich hauptsächlich aus der erbfolge und der Fähigkeit, eine Axt zu nutzen. Dieses unterscheidet sich massiv von den rechten der Elfen und Menschen. Bei den Elfen ist statt der Axt ein Bogen und die Fähigkeit, sich im Dunkeln anzuschleichen (neben der Erbfolge) von nöten, bei den Menschen handelt es sich bei der Besitzvergabe um eine Auseinandersetzung mit Schwertern. Den Zwergen kommt ein Sonderstatus zu, da diese schon von ihrer Kreation an eine ungewollte, einfach erscheinende und sich land nehmende Rasse waren, das heisst, die Besitzaufteilung ausserhalb der Erfolge (die axtmethode) ist wesentlich tiefer in ihrer Kultur verankert als bei den anderen Rassen.
7. Ohne Sauron als gemeinsamen feind würden sich Elfen, Menschen und Zwerge niemals verbünden, stattdessen hätten sie ihre Schlachten um "die welt vom Bösen zu befreien" untereinander geschlagen. Da die Elfen im ersten und zweiten Zeitalter als sehr mächtig beschrieben werden, hätten sie innerhalb kürzester Zeit die anderen Rassen vollständig ausgerottet. (damit hat sie das untersuchen der anderen Stämme und Rassen erledigt, ents später). Die Reste der Zwerge wäre in den Bergen einschlossen worden, wo sie für immer vergessen werden und die Hobbits wären als "halbrasse" in ein Reservat (shire) gesperrt worden. Die Elfen hätten ihre Kultur aber nicht aufrecht erhalten können, denn ohne den ständigen Druck von Terroristischen Orcs von aussen wäre ihr innerer Zusammenhalt geschwunden bis schliesslich ein offener Bürgerkrieg ausgebrochen wäre. Einige Renegaten unter Elrond hätten nun Rivendell ebenso wie in Tolkiens original erbaut, um sich vor den elfischen Horden zu verstecken und sich zu verteidigen. Die Valar und anderen Älteren würden durch Sauron keine Einsicht in das Böse gewinnen. Die Vorstellung eines Manwe, der zu sauron sagt "Ja, eigentlich hast du recht" ist zwar unterhaltsam, doch glaube ich dieses nicht, da ein Valar geschaffen wurde, er hat sich nicht entwickelt, folglich kann er sich auch nicht weiter entwickeln. Dies ist auch gar nicht notwendig, denn wie wir alle wissen, muss man nur wissen, dass jemand oder etwas gegen einen ist und man muss es nicht verstehen, um es zu zerschmettern.
@Yavanna Du hattest recht, alles beantwortbar. Ich hätte mir ein wenig mehr Zeit nehmen müssen (die Sorgfalt liess in 6 und besonders 7 noch einmal unverantwortlicherweise nach, doch lasse ich das nun so.
My turn now... despite the fact that none of you is The One, I still have decided to share my drops of wisdom with you.
1. Nothing more than the usual friendship. We do not know anything for sure about Legolas, but we definitely know that Gimli is heterosexual, since he fell in love with Galadriel (who is apparently a female). It is true that Gimli followed Legolas over the Sea, but this, too, might quite well be due to his affection for Galadriel who, according to some rumours, may even have given him the allowance to enter the Undying Lands herself.
2. No, he would not have. Look at Arwen whom Aragorn loves - dark haired elf woman. Now look at Éowyn whom he does not love - blond human woman. Finally look at Pamela Anderson and decide why he really would not have had a second look at her.
3. Quite a lot more often than the word "anti-nuclear demonstration activists", but much less often than the word "and".
4. Why did the river, in which Isildur was swimming when he lost the ring, not turn invisible, leaving the orcs that hunted him quite astonished? Why did the shore, to which the river directly was connected, not turn invisible? Why did the orcs, standing on that particular shore, not turn invisible? Why then did the whole of Middle-Earth not turn invisible? Quite logically because the ring only affects living beings, and even these only when they put the ring on their finger, not when they for example simply hold it on their flat hand.
5. Since the ring, as stated just above, affects living beings - and *each* living being (to correct the slight mistake in your logic above), and since the ring does not affect Tom Bombadil, he cannot be a "living being" in that sense. In contrary, Fangorn is, as an ent, a member of one of the free 'common' races of Middle Earth and as such a "living being", whereas Tom clearly does not belong to any race living in Middle Earth but can be more likely considered to be either Maia, Vala or any other spirit. Therefore, he is THE Eldest, whereas Fangorn is the eldest of all living beings (in the sense of known races) walking on Middle Earth. A birth date cannot be given because neither Tom nor Fangorn were actually "born". Instead, they were both "created" rather than born as they belonged to the very first generation of creatures to live in Middle Earth.
6. Nice question, but unfortunately based on a wrong assumption, namely Dáin being the rightful owner of Moria. This is, as will be explained in the following, not true. First, let us consider who is the rightful owner of an item. It can be the one who created it, it can be the one who bought it from the creator, or it can be the one who was given the item as a present. Did Dúrin (as Dáins ancestor) create Moria? No, obviously not - you cannot acquire rightful ownership just by altering an item (assuming you had a car and someone came and painted it green - you would quite unlikely agree that by doing so he now has become the owner of your car). Then who is the creator of Moria? Not a difficult question - Moria was, as all mountain chains, created by Aule, the Smith, Maker of Middle Earth. So is there any possibility that Dúrin still could have acquired ownership of Moria? He has, quite clearly, not bought it from Aule. Was he given it as a present? Obviously not. We might assume that Aule has indeed given Moria to the dwarves as "his" people (the one he created himself), but there is not the slightest evidence that he gave it to Dúrin alone - it is much more likely that he gave it to all dwarves, that means to "the people of dwarves". Therefore, either Aule still is the rightful owner of Moria, if he did not give it away, or the dwarven people is its owner - but neither Dúrin nor Dáin nor Balin nor any other single dwarf can reasonably be considered as the owner of Moria. Thus, Balin was just as free to call himself "Lord of Moria" as is Dáin. As for Gimli, he did not call himself "Lord of the Glittering Caves", but rather he was given that title as a reward for his constructive work regarding the caves. Therefore this title is rather a compliment than a claim for ownership, and Gimli was free to use it without the ownership of the caves being affected in any way.
7. Nothing would have changed. Melkor would simply have sent another of his servants. Remember: Remove one villain and he will just be replaced by another almost instantly. Quite commonly known rule (see human history for further evidence).
Silbermond
Thema drucken
05.11.2004 00:29
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